Chapter VII: Letter VI: To John Tupper

I don’t know the date of this doggrel (which gives twenty several rhyme-words in “ack”); it was probably the Spring or Summer of 1850. The men who “would squeeze a pun in Syriac” may probably have been of the James Hannay connexion; the men of that connexion were not, however, entirely likely to indulge in “sloshy tea,” but rather in ardent spirits. As to the nicknames which appear towards the close of the epistle--The Prince was George Tupper; The Baron, his brother Alexander; Spectro-cadaveral Rex, John (or Jack) Tupper; the Maniac, Holman Hunt. It is not worth while expounding (even were it practicable to do so) how these epithets arose. Rossetti was not the inventor of any of them. The reference to “Nature, sky, sun,” &c., suggests that he had been invited to join in a pedestrian excursion--such as the P.R.B.’s and their intimates got up occasionally. In the present instance the party, as we see, was to consist of Holman Hunt, Stephens, and the three Tuppers.

[? April 1850.]
72 Newman Street.
Saturday Afternoon.

Dear Jack
Alack!
A few days back
I bound myself by oath to smack
My lips o’er sloshy tea, and attack
White, brown, or black
Bread, and vile jokes to crack,
This night with brutes whose knack
Would squeeze a pun in Syriac.
And for to-morrow, alack!
I have a model on my track,
So that I may not pack.
Of course I writhe upon the rack:
Though as to NATURE, Jack,
(Poor dear old hack!)
Touching sky, sun, stone, stick, and stack,
I guess I’m half a quack;
For whom ten lines of Browning whack
The whole of the Zodiac.
Nevertheless, alack!
Seeing this time I must send back
To Prince and Baron, Stephens and Jack
(Spec-caday Rex, hic hæc hoc hac),
And to the Maniac,
The SACK.
This much from D. G. R. (in black,
_I.e._, with coal-ash cloth-of-sack.)